MAN Energy Solutions - Centrale Nantes Joint Laboratory

Centrale Nantes and MAN Energy Solutions began working together in 2018 as part of an industrial chair and then a joint laboratory from 2025 for the decarbonisation of marine propulsion and power generation.

In 2025, after six years of productive cooperation via an industrial chair, MAN Energy Solutions and Centrale Nantes took a new step forward by launching a joint laboratory focusing on technological innovations for future energy systems. The aim of this five-year strategic partnership is to develop practical solutions to make high-power engines safer, more flexible and more efficient in order to meet the energy and maritime challenges of the future.

Strategic challenges for the maritime sector and nuclear power generation

Maritime transport is a cornerstone of world trade, but it also faces major environmental challenges. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has set itself the target of cutting the sector's CO₂ emissions by 40% by 2030. This transition involves:

• Improving the energy efficiency of engines and propulsion systems
• Developing and integrating alternative fuels (hydrogen, ammonia, biofuels, etc.)
• Speeding up the hybridisation and electrification of propulsion systems.

At the same time, nuclear power generation offers a mature solution for decarbonising our energy mix. MAN Energy Solutions plays an essential role in global nuclear safety by supplying emergency and back-up generators. These generators must be reliable, start up quickly and operate in extreme conditions (earthquakes, heat waves, etc.).

The joint MAN Energy Solutions - Centrale Nantes laboratory is part of this drive to speed up the development of practical technological solutions for safer, more flexible and more efficient engines

Ambitious objectives in the face of the energy challenges ahead

The joint laboratory aims to provide practical solutions that are directly applicable to the maritime and energy industries, based on three priorities:

1. Optimising engine performance

The joint laboratory's work will focus on improving new and retrofit MAN-Pielstick engines to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, while adapting to new operational constraints and emerging fuels. They are based on an approach combining advanced simulation and experimental validation. The aim is to improve engine performance in transient phases (cold start, load variations) and limit pollution at source.

2. Monitoring and intelligent control

The joint laboratory will also work on developing innovations in systems control and monitoring, to provide real-time monitoring of equipment.
This collaboration will study the implementation of a hybrid supercharging system to improve the management of energy flows between engine components. In addition, the teams will address the issue of energy management in multi-source electrical microgrids, particularly renewable sources. The aim is to use advanced control techniques to ensure continuity of service and optimise motor consumption.

3. Innovation in materials and manufacturing processes

The work of the joint laboratory will focus on the deployment of the WAAM metal additive manufacturing process (a technology derived from arc welding for stacking layers of material) for the manufacture or repair of engine components. Additive manufacturing should provide greater control over the quality of components while securing the supply chain

Outstanding synergy between research and industry to maximise impact

This laboratory relies on close collaboration between academic and industrial teams to ensure that the results are implemented rapidly. This new collaboration involves three Centrale Nantes research groups, 4 research engineers, supported by 1 or 2 technicians and 2 PhD students, all supervised by 3 Centrale Nantes faculty members alongside 4 or 5 MAN Energy Solutions employees.

This new phase of collaboration with MAN Energy Solutions is a perfect illustration of Centrale Nantes' ability to support different sectors in their energy transition. This joint laboratory will enable us to pool our expertise and boost innovation for more sustainable maritime propulsion. It confirms the emergence in our region of a centre of excellence in this field.

Jean-Baptiste Avrillier, Director of Centrale Nantes.
 

MAN Energy Solutions - Centrale Nantes Chair: optimise the energy efficiency of industrial engines (2018 - 2025)

Centrale Nantes and MAN Energy Solutions started working together as part of an industrial chair on the gradual decarbonisation of marine propulsion and electricity generation. This 6-year chair started in 2018 and was extended in 2023 for a further 18 months.

This chair represents 6 years of collaboration between Centrale Nantes via its LHEEA research laboratory, and MAN Energy Solutions. 8 full-time equivalents worked on the subject, including 3 PhD students, for an investment of 5 million euros (Centrale Nantes: €2M - MAN Energy Solutions €3M).

The main scientific aim was to study the operation of industrial engines in their environment in order to optimise their energy efficiency while limiting their emissions.

Studies carried out within the Chair's scope include:

• Specific phenomena such as fuel injection, combustion, lateral heat transfer, supercharging, etc.
• Interactions between the engine and its environment (systems approach), whether in the context of naval propulsion or electricity production, including hybrid power
• The use of alternative fuels

This often involved multidisciplinary work, calling in particular on thermodynamics, compressible fluid dynamics, combustion, and even hydrodynamics, electrical engineering or automatic control.

On the technical side, the Chair has contributed to the development of new components and new strategies for optimising complete systems, possibly with new types of fuel. Most of the studies were carried out by simulation on different scales and are supported by experimental tests, which are required for model calibration and to validate results. These tests were carried out on the engine test benches of our partner MAN Energy Solutions and on a test bench developed at Centrale Nantes for injection systems.

 

The three PhD theses allowed for more upstream or fundamental investigation, notably on the hybridization of the supercharging system of semi-rapid naval propulsion engines, innovative strategies for controlling a ship's propulsion system in the presence of swell, and on combining renewable energy and diesel for the production of electricity in isolated areas.

The decarbonisation of maritime transport and electricity production is an important societal and industrial issue for the future that Centrale Nantes is tackling comprehensively through its   platforms and expertise in hydrodynamics and propulsion in the same laboratory (LHEEA).